49 - Statins as a moneymaking scam

Over 50% of men aged 65 to 74 are taking statins daily. This is according to a Google search. The report does not say how many women are taking statins every day, but I can tell you, as a retired doctor, that it would not be much fewer.

Lipid-lowering drugs are the most prescribed medicines across the so-called "developed world." Millions, if not indeed billions, consume them daily. This is at an enormous expense to the global economy and to individuals. Lipid-lowering drugs do not come cheap.

This might not matter if they were doing us any good. But there's the question, of course. Do statins offer any benefit to mankind? Do they, for example, lengthen our lives by lowering the incidence of heart attack and death?

I can find no evidence at all in the medical literature that people taking statins daily live any longer than those not taking any such medication. If you can find anything in the peer-review literature that contradicts what I'm saying here, then please share it with the rest of us. In the meantime, I will continue to view statins as a cynical moneymaking scam of no benefit whatsoever to mankind.